Zhuhai CTC plans to move 500 units a year of its Riverbase 500 3D printer

Nov 18, 2016 | By Tess

Zhuhai CTC Electronic, China’s leading 3D printer manufacturer, recently announced that it plans to produce an annual output of 500 industrial 3D printers. The announcement was made at China’s intelligent equipment exhibition, recently held in the southeastern city of Wuhu, where CTC was exhibiting its industrial Riverbase 500 3D printer.

According to the company, its new light-curing 3D printer, which comes with a price tag of 500,000 RMB ($72,622 USD), gained much attention at the additive manufacturing event. The Riverbase 500 3D printer, released in September 2016, marks CTC’s turn away from the desktop 3D printer market towards the increasingly dominant industrial 3D printer market—a move which has been made by other top 3D printing companies like Stratasys and 3D Systems.

As part of the company’s expansion, CTC has moved part of its operations to a base in Wuhu, which will allow it to increase its overall 3D printer production. According to He Siyi, CTC’s Electronic PR Manager, the expansion will allow the company to reach a capacity of 40 units per month, which will in turn allow it to fill backlog orders within a two-month period.

Overall, the company plans to reach sales of 500 units per year of its industrial SLA 3D printer. Most of the orders are expected from within China’s domestic prototyping market. As He Siyi explained, “Factories in the Pearl River Delta area basically all use SLA 3D printers to replace traditional CNC processes. In this vertical segment of the industrial revolution, 3D printing’s rapid growth of demand is beyond our expectations.”

The Riverbase 500, a highly accurate SLA 3D printer, is Zhuhai CTC Electronic’s flagship product. The industrial additive manufacturing system features a build area of up to 500 mm x 4000 mm x 300 mm, and is compatible with photosensitive resin from a number of vendors. The 3D printer is also equipped with the RiverOS 1.0 operating system, which features point scanning and a number of other useful tools.

As China’s leading 3D printer manufacturer, Zhuhai CTC Electronic currently holds about 10% of the desktop 3D printer market share. With its new Riverbase 500, the company is hoping to make as much of an impact within the industrial 3D printer market. According to CTC, it has even received a significant order of 30 units from a British company, bringing it onto the international scene.